‘Before it’s too late’

European leaders are meeting today (March 18) to firm up action that must be taken to save Europe’s beleaguered steel industry.

 
The Brussels summit comes on the heels of measures that the European Commission (EC) drew up earlier this week that would alleviate the steel crisis, which included taking stronger action on Chinese steel dumping.

 
The European Commission noted that better trade defence measures must be adopted to combat the flood of cheap steel permeating European borders. It said it had already put 37 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures in place on steel products, 16 of which were on steel imports from China.

Scrap the rule
But it highlighted again the importance of member states coming together to agree to scrap the “lesser duty rule”, which would enable the EU to significantly increase tariffs on Chinese steel.

 
As UNITELive has reported before, the UK government has previously blocked proposals to scrap the rule, belying its commitment to combat cheap imports.

 
Prime minister David Cameron as well as business secretary Sajid Javid have said that they believed scrapping the lesser duty rule would be tantamount to protectionism.

 
Director of industry group UK Steel Gareth Stace noted that getting rid of the lesser duty rule is essential if the UK industry is to have a fighting chance against unfairly cheap imports.

 
“China shows no sign of stemming the tidal wave of steel exports which it is dumping on the global market,” he said.

 
“While the EU Commission rightly suggests that scrapping the lesser duty rule would bring about tariffs that would actually make a difference, the UK in blocking these changes is effectively saying to China, ‘please dump here, you’re welcome.’

 
Stace added that if the lesser duty isn’t scrapped, then “further job losses are inevitable.”

 
The European Commission noted that in addition to defence against unfair trade practices, it was also moving to tackle underlying causes of global overcapacity which has led to steel dumping in the first place. It also argued for investment in skills and people, as well as investment in future technologies that would modernise the steel industry by making it more energy efficient.

 
“At EU level, various funds are available to support the steel industry on its modernisation path,” the Commission noted. “These funds include the €315 billion European Fund for Strategic Investments (which has already supported the modernisation of a steel factory), EU Structural and Investment Funds and the EU research funding programme Horizon 2020.”

Work together
The European Commission  highlighted just how vital the steel industry is to European economies.

 
“The steel industry in Europe is world-leading in certain steel product segments, represents 1.3 per cent of EU GDP and provided around 328,000 jobs in 2015,” it said. “The steel industry is also an important source of indirect employment, since it plays a significant role for many other industrial sectors such as the automotive industry.”

 
In the UK alone, the steel industry adds ÂŁ9bn annually to the economy and exported ÂŁ4.9bn of steel in 2013. Despite massive job losses since the steel crisis accelerated a year ago, the industry still employs more than 20,000 people directly, with many more jobs coming indirectly from steel.

 
The European Commission emphasised the need for all member states to come together to solve the steel crisis.

 
“The current challenges for the steel industry are serious, but they can be overcome if all players work together in a spirit of sincere cooperation,” it noted.

 
“The Commission will continue to monitor the situation closely and stands ready to put forward additional measures, as necessary.”

 
“There is no time to lose to preserve sustainable jobs and growth in Europe.”

 
Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke hailed the European Commission’s call for action and urged the UK government to take note.

 
“These are welcome moves from the European Commission to speed up and toughen up action on the dumping of cheap Chinese steel,” said Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke.

 
“It would be shameful if government ministers continued to block higher tariffs which are essential to ensuring steelmaking in the UK has a future,” he added. “A failure to do so will leave the government open to accusations of selling British steel down the river.

 
“Ministers need to drop their nonsensical opposition to allow higher anti-dumping tariffs and back the European Commission’s plans to protect British jobs before it’s too late.”